Boris Lipnitzki, born in Russia in 1887, came to live in Paris in 1921. There he met Paul Poiret who introduced him to this clientele, set up his first studio and began a career as an up and coming photographer. Beginning in 1924, he published his fashion photographs in Femina and Excelsior (Heim, Schiaparelli, Chanel, Rouff....), as well as photographs of celebrities (Josephine Baker, Dulin, Artaud, Cocteau, Jouvet, Giraudoux, Anouilh, Michel Simon, Colette) and of Parisian celebrations and society events. He spent time with the Russian community in Paris, visiting artists' studios and theaters, photographing ballet and theater decors, as well as the designers and the performers (Fokine, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Lifar among others). During the war, he fled occupied France, meeting up with his friend Marc Chagall in New York. After the war, he and his brothers founded the Lipnitski Studio, which, until the end of the sixties covered Paris theater, ballet and opera events. Boris Lipnitski died in Paris in 1971. His photographic production, as well as that of the Lipnitski Studio, the whole representing more than a million negatives and 600,000 prints, was bought by Roger-Viollet in 1970.
View all imagesWassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), peintre russe naturalisé allemand, puis français. Paris, décembre 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Russian-born French painter, in his studio. Paris, August 1934.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Russian-born French painter, in his studio. Paris, August 1934.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972), Russian dancer and choreographer, in the "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Arkady Doubensky (1890-1966), Russian violinist. Paris, 1925-1935.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Russian-born French painter, painting with his partner Virginia (1915-2006). Cannes (France), April 1951.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Monte-Carlo Ballet. Rehearsal for "L'Epreuve d'amour", ballet by Mikhail Fokine. Mikhail Fokine, Vera Nemchinova and André Eglevsky. Principality of Monaco, March 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Nathalie Branitzka (1905-1977), danseuse russe. Paris, juin 1933.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Léonide Massine (1895-1979), danseur, chorégraphe, maître de ballet et pédagogue américain d'origine russe. Ballets de Monte Carlo (Principauté de Monaco), 1933.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Olga Spessivtzeva (1895-1999), danseuse russe. Paris, mai 1934.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marina Semionova (1907-2010), danseuse russe. Paris, décembre 1935.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Remise du Chausson d'or à Serge Lifar (1905-1986), danseur et chorégraphe français d'origine russe. Opéra de Paris, 18 décembre 1955.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Serge Lifar (1905-1986), danseur et chorégraphe français d'origine russe. Paris, février 1949.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Serge Lifar (1905-1986), danseur et chorégraphe français d'origine russe. Paris, mars 1937.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978), Russian dancer. Paris, May 1933.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Russian-born German and later French painter. Paris, December 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Artist copyright must also be cleared © ADAGP or corresponding collecting society.
Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951), Russian-born American conductor. Paris, July 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Serge Conus (1902-1988), Russian pianist and composer. Paris, August 1937.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marie Vassilieva (1884-1957), Russian painter and decorator. Paris, February 1953.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Russian-born French painter, with his partner Virginia (1915-2006) and their son David (born in 1946). Cannes (France), April 1951.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Russian composer, naturalized French then American. Paris, June 1929.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Igor Stravinski (1882-1971), compositeur russe, en famille. Paris, vers 1930.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Igor Stravinski (1882-1971), compositeur russe. Paris, vers 1930.
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Alice Nikitina (1909-1978), danseuse russe. Paris, vers 1930.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962), Russian painter, sculptor and decorator, in the studio she shared with her husband Mikhail Larionov (1881-1964). Paris, around 1920.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Tamara Toumanova (1919-1996), Russian-born dancer, 1930.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Apollo (Apollon Musagète), ballet by George Balanchine, on a music by Igor Stravinsky. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Serge Lifar. 1928.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Russian pianist and composer. Paris, June 1924. Photograph by Boris Lipnitzki (1887-1971).
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Russian pianist and composer, and his wife, Lina Llubera (Carolina Codina, 1897-1989), Spanish soprano. Paris, July 1924. Photograph by Boris Lipnitzki (1887-1971).
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky (1874-1951), Russian-born American composer. Paris, September 1925.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Dancing lesson by Mathilde Kschessinska (1872-1971), Russian ballet dancer. Paris, circa 1925.
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Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960), Russian dancer in "Semiramis" costume (by André Barsacq). Paris, May 1934.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Russian composer. Venice (Italy), 1956.
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Henri Troyat (1911-2007), Russian-born French writer. France, 1949.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Serge Lifar, French dancer and choreographer, in his ballet "Icare". Orchestrations of I. Szyfer. Decorations and costumes of P. Larthe. Opera of Paris, May 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Alexander Uninsky (1910-1972), Russian pianist naturalized American, June 1937.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), Russian-born American cellist. Paris, June 1939.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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George Balanchine (1904-1983) Russian-born American dancer and choreographer. May 1952.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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"Petrushka", ballet by Michel Fokine on a music by Igor Stravinsky. From left to right: X, Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois, X, Tamara Karsavina, Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky and Serge Lifar. Paris Opera, 1929.
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Élèves de Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972), danseuse, pédagogue et chorégraphe russe. Paris, janvier 1934.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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"David triomphant". Serge Lifar. Paris, Théâtre Cité Universitaire, December 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), Russian-born American cellist. Paris, June 1939.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Mariana de Gonitch (1900-1993), Russian opera singer, with her band. Paris, May 1933.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Poètes russes émigrés en France vers 1925. Ivan Chmelev (1873-1950) au centre et Konstantine Balmont (1867-1942) à droite.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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"Sleeping Beauty" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Choreography after Marius Petipa. Direction : Robert Helpmann. International Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas. Olga Adabache. Paris, October 1960.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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"Swan Lake", ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Maya Plisetskaya, September 1961.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Zizi Jeanmaire and Wladimir Skouratoff in "Que le diable l'emporte", choreography of Roland Petit. Decors and costumes of André Derain. Ballets de Paris, May 1948.
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Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), Russian-born American violinist and conductor, with his sisters Hephzibah Menuhin (1920-1981), American pianist, and Yaltah Menuhin (1921-2001), American-born British writer and pianist, February 1936.
Boris Lipnitzki / Roger-Viollet
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Michel Fokine (1880-1942), Russian dancer and choreographer, during the rehearsal of the ballet "L'Epreuve d'amour". Monte-Carlo ballets, March 1936; on the centre : André Eglevsky.
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"Petrushka". Ballet by Igor Stravinsky. Bronislava Nijinska. Paris, 1930.
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